An H, Fairbrother J M, Dubreuil J D, Harel J
Groupe de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses du Porc, Université de Montréal, Faculté de Médecine Vétérinaire, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada.
FEMS Microbiol Lett. 1997 Mar 15;148(2):239-45. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6968.1997.tb10295.x.
We have cloned and determined the nucleotide sequence of the eae gene from a dog attaching and effacing (A/E) Escherichia coli (DEPEC) strain 4221. When comparing the predicted amino acid sequence of the eaeDEPEC to that of the Eae proteins from enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), enterohaemorrhagic E. coli O157:H7 (EHEC), Citrobacter freundii biotype 4280, and a swine A/E E. coli strain O45 (PEPEC), the overall sequence identity was 84, 81, 83 and 83%, respectively, with the greatest divergence at the C-terminal end, the putative receptor-binding portion. Interestingly, the DEPEC Eae shares the greatest identity at the C-terminal region with the Citrobacter freundii Eae protein. We have constructed and purified a maltose-binding fusion protein (MBP) containing the product of the entire eae gene of the DEPEC strain 4221. Binding of MBP-EaeDEPEC fusion protein to HEp-2 cells was demonstrated by immunofluorescence microscopy. In addition, the Eae protein of DEPEC (4221) demonstrated a strong serological relationship with that of EPEC (E2348/69) as observed using a polyclonal antiserum against MBP-EaeDEPEC fusion protein.
